9 Everyday Inventions That Caused Widespread Panic

3. Writing Will Give You Memory Loss

Technophobia isn't just limited to handwringing opposition to industrialization and/or the damaging effects of selfies on the youth of today, the worry that the Next Big Thing will rot the brains of the youth dates back to the 4th Century BC (and, let's be honest, probably earlier).

Whilst hordes of fraught english teachers try their best to get kids excited about poetry, Socrates, the famous philosopher, warned that writing was dangerously detrimental to education. He claimed that writing things down would damage people's memories and thus their ability to learn.

Ironically, we probably would know today that he had ever said that, if his student Plato hadn't been dutifully writing down everything that he said at the time.